Bankers await a date with destiny

Lenders claim they are already safe and the reforms planned by the Independent Commission on Banking will only weaken them

Banks such as HSBC may be forced to split their retail and investment arms (Michael Crabtree)

Three years have passed since the financial crisis ripped through the heart of Britain’s banks, yet the aftershocks are still being felt.

Taxpayers are now sitting on a paper loss of close to £40 billion on the stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group acquired in rescue bailouts. The broader economy, meanwhile, is barely sputtering back to health.

Understandably, there is a public clamour to ensure the crisis is never repeated — or certainly not to the same extent. Last week the political debate over how to handle that problem threatened to tear the government apart.

At 5am on Monday, September 12, Britain’s bank bosses will receive an email that will spell out the details of the key set of reforms aimed at their banks.

The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) was tasked with finding ways to make the financial system safer — including whether or not banks should